Grosjean: We'll try to come back stronger in China

26 March 2013

Romain Grosjean has promised Lotus will try to come back stronger in China in three weeks time after a pretty disappointing Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Enstone-based outfit headed to Sepang, for the second round in the 2013 F1 World Championship, on the crest of a wave following Kimi Raikkonen's victory in the season opener in Australia, just seven days earlier.

However, the Malaysian Grand Prix proved a tougher nut to crack. Indeed while Grosjean himself did okay, finishing sixth and ahead of his team-mate, despite having started one spot further down, the Frenchman conceded the result definitely wasn't what they were hoping for.

He also added that he felt he had been held up by Ferrari number two driver Felipe Massa mid-race, something else that prevented him from finishing higher up.

“It was a tough race, starting wet and finishing dry, but that's what you expect in Malaysia. I spent a lot of time stuck behind Felipe in the middle phase of the race and I'm sure if I could have passed him earlier then I would have stayed ahead, but by the end my tyres were finished so it was best just to let him through,” Grosjean explained.

“It's not the result we would have wanted at the beginning of the weekend. But at the end of the day it's more points for the team and we'll try to come back stronger in Shanghai now,” he added.

Lotus technical director, James Allison meanwhile agreed things didn't go to plan and said a poor qualifying performance was partly to blame for the team's race day woe. Like Grosjean, however, he believes the E21 will be a better proposition in China.

“This weekend feels like a case of what might have been. We had a car on Friday which looked extremely promising, but unfortunately that didn't translate into the sort of result we'd expect,” Alison continued.

“Qualifying tenth and eleventh – particularly in the wet – was not an ideal start, with the consequence that within seven laps we were around thirty seconds from the front. Our progress thereafter was actually quite respectable so it's frustrating to have lost touch with the race at such an early stage, but I'm confident we'll be delivering some stronger results in the coming races.”